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House and Senate tax writers have been digesting a massive amount of data and advice from Capitol Hill sources and the energy industry and are passing that along to lawmakers.

“I feel like we’re in the third inning and moving forward,” said Rep. Kevin Brady (R-Texas), who along with Rep. Mike Thompson (D-Calif.) is co-leading a Ways and Means working group on energy. “Priorities within the Tax Code are beginning to surface.”

“The whole idea is to get knowledgeable on this,” Thompson said. “We have the best information available so we can in fact do some good public policy.”

Among the items under consideration: allowing renewable energy companies to have greater access to tax-advantaged structures, balancing a reduction in tax rates with elimination of incentives widely used by oil and gas producers and promoting new measures to spur energy efficiency.

What the two lawmakers have heard so far is that the energy industry is very capital intensive. “The cost of capital matters, the ability to recover it on a timely basis matters,” Brady said. “And certainty is an issue raised by everyone,” especially after last year’s tax extenders and fiscal cliff debates, he said.

The two lawmakers met on Brady’s home turf at the University of Houston for two hours Tuesday in a closed-door session with seven organizations that mainly represented the oil and gas industry but also included the wind and solar industries.

They are holding two more talks in Washington, one on tax incentives for commercial and consumer energy efficiency and one on international competitiveness and financing.

Previous discussions have focused on oil and gas exploration and production, electricity transmission and distribution and renewable fuels in vehicles, and Thompson said he expects a field hearing in his district soon.

The one thing that he and Brady heard most in Houston “is that they very much want to be treated, they want a certain level playing field and be treated the same as everyone else,” Thompson said. “But who doesn’t, right?”

Thompson, Rep. Ted Poe (R-Texas) and Sens. Chris Coons (D-Del.) and Jerry Moran (R-Kan.) have sought to allow renewable energy projects to use master limited partnership tax structures and real estate investment trusts to reduce their capital costs. Currently, those tax structures are available only to companies involved in oil, natural gas, coal extraction and pipeline projects, and they are explicitly prevented from applying to renewable energy.

Other bills have included familiar efforts that draw more partisan heat.

Sen. Robert Menendez (D-N.J.) is seeking to repeal tax incentives for the five biggest oil companies operating in the U.S., an effort fiercely opposed by Republicans and oil-state Democrats. Rep. Mike Pompeo (R-Kan.) is continuing his efforts to trim the overall corporate tax rate and eliminate all energy tax credits for both conventional and renewable energy sources.

But some businesses are already pushing back at the idea of losing their targeted Tax Code help, arguing that would leave them worse off even if corporate tax rates were cut.

“Clearly the energy industry understands that if we’re going to significantly lower the rates and simplify the Tax Code, status quo overall is not an option,” Brady said.

And different energy companies hold different opinions, depending on their position in the energy value chain and how well-established their sector is. “It is hard to say that there is a consensus that is beginning to emerge,” Brady said.